The Funeral Announcement

This is the link to the item in the Bournemouth Echo (2004) regarding my late mother, and as reproduced below.

SLOCOCK FLORENCE HESTER JOYCE Wife of the late Horace, died on 1st March, aged 84 in Poole Hospital. Loving Mother of Dennis, Geoffrey, Diana, Christopher and Caroline and to Carole, Andrew, Yayu and John and loving Grandmother. Former organiser, with her friend Vi at Help The Aged, Poole. Family Service at Poole Crematorium on Friday 12th March 2.30pm followed by Thanksgiving Service at 3.15pm in St. John’s Church, Wimborne. Family flowers only, donations to “PRAMACARE” may be sent c/o Lesley Shand Funeral Service, 184, Wareham Road, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, Dorset. BH21 3LL. Tel 01202 658833.

Any reader of this article has to consider what went wrong. And I guess I can say that I have tried to be a member of this family; and, amongst the five siblings, I have been left feeling unhappy with the results of such endeavours. Each to his own, of course; but families tend not to quite work in a simple way. I could also add that my mother was not quite my loving mother. But heck, that is only a much-worn phrase used by funeral directors who — as a matter of course — are diplomatic with and about all. By way of further elaboration, I append a set of three family-background topics which are accessible just below.

Divorces and family crises evidently come in different ways and also different glosses are possible upon the discordant family experiences that we may have. My early relationship difficulties with my mother, then, have rather ended up with long-term consequences. Funerals, moreover, are complex rites of passage for each of us; we conform to the social norms at these times but the inner thoughts are very much with us.